W. S. Barrett

[1] As a scrupulous atheist, Barrett could not become a Fellow of Keble (although he was treated as one) until the college's statutes were changed to remove the disability in 1952.

[2] It was a significant advance on its predecessors, being based on collations of ten of the sixteen mediaeval manuscripts, the other six having little independent value.

When an Inland Revenue tax inspector once challenged his tax return, questioning whether a computer was an allowable expense for a classicist, Barrett was able to show that for an understanding of the text of Pindar it was essential to know how Mount Etna had appeared to a sailor passing the mountain in a ship.

[2] His other principal research interest was the Greek lyric, and he made outstanding contributions on the poets Stesichorus, Bacchylides and Simonides of Ceos.

[1] He claimed to derive from these years his preferred sleeping hours of 4 a.m. to mid-day, as his reports had to be ready by eight o'clock in the morning, and he found it suited him to work through the night.